Phospho-Tau (Thr498) Polyclonal Antibody, Invitrogen™

Description

• Antibody detects endogenous levels of Tau only when phosphorylated at Thr498, which site historically referenced as Thr181
• Tau is a neuronal microtubule-associated protein found predominantly on axons
• The function of Tau is to promote tubulin polymerization and stabilize microtubules
• The C-terminus binds axonal microtubules while the N- terminus binds neural plasma membrane components, suggesting that tau functions as a linker protein between both
• Axonal polarity is predetermined by TAU/MAPT localization (in the neuronal cell) in the domain of the cell body defined by the centrosome
• The short isoforms allow plasticity of the cytoskeleton while the longer isoforms may preferentially play a role in its stabilization
• In its hyper-phosphorylated form, Tau is the major component of paired helical filaments (PHF), the building block of neurofibrillary lesions in Alzheimer's diseases (AD) brain
• Hyper-phosphorylation impairs the microtubule binding function of Tau, resulting in the destabilization of microtubules in AD brains, μgtimately leading to the degeneration of the affected neurons
• Numerous serine/threonine kinases phosphorylate Tau, including GSK-3beta, protein kinase A (PKA), cyclin-dependent kinase 5 (cdk5) and casein kinase II
• Hyper-phosphorylated Tau is found in neurofibrillary lesions in a range and other central nervous system disorders such as Pick's disease, frontotemporal dementia, cortico-basal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy.